The Republican Primary Campaign in Iowa Is Right at Home on Fox News
From The New York Times:
“You don’t win Iowa in Iowa, you win it on this couch,” is how the Republican commentator Dick Morris put it on “Fox & Friends” on Wednesday. Mr. Morris said that the Republican debates and Fox News had forged a national primary that “imposes itself on Iowa.”
It’s certainly obvious in Iowa that candidates are investing a lot more time in television interviews than they are on the campaign trail. It’s a safe bet: a recent New York Times/CBS News poll of likely Iowa Republican caucus participants showed that 37 percent said they get most of their information from Fox News, that’s compared with 27 percent who cited broadcast news and a mere 2 percent who said they relied on MSNBC.
Accordingly, caucus and primary voters have a voice on Fox News. All the networks, broadcast and cable, are closely covering the campaign, but Fox News practically owns and operates it: its viewers are seeing the world through the eyes of a Tea Party activist in Davenport, or a small business leader in Ames — my own private Iowa.
Fox News is known for ambush interviews, but it doesn’t have to lie in wait for Republican candidates. Many news organizations took a telling clip from a recent interview that Mitt Romney gave to the Fox News anchor Bret Baier in Florida that showed the usually imperturbable former Massachusetts governor looking rattled and jumpy when asked about health care. The full interview was long, thorough and even more tense — Mr. Baier also pressed Mr. Romney on his changing views on amnesty for illegal immigrants with the polite insistence that candidates used to face from single-issue voters in Iowa kaffeeklatsches.
Mr. Romney wasn’t happy with the interview, but Fox News viewers don’t seem thrilled with him either. Nearly half of them said they would vote for Newt Gingrich if the state’s Republican presidential caucus were held today; only 12 percent said they favored Mr. Romney.
That could be because Mr. Gingrich is a much more familiar face on Fox News, having logged more than 50 appearances since the campaign began. Mr. Romney is playing catch-up, seizing every opportunity to appear on the channel. He took a break from a forum in Washington sponsored by the Jewish Republican Coalition to tell a Fox reporter that Newt Gingrich is for amnesty for illegal immigrants and against child labor laws, among other things. “The list will go on and on as we get a clear indication of exactly where the speaker stands,” Mr. Romney said, not cheerfully.
He also posed in front of flag-waving supporters this week while talking to Fox about his decision to snub a proposed Donald Trump-moderated debate at the end of the month. Mr. Gingrich and Rick Santorum agreed to attend, Michele Bachmann is undecided, and Ron Paul, Rick Perry and Jon Huntsman declined. (Mr. Huntsman told Sean Hannity of Fox News that Mr. Trump “dumbs down” the process.) The question over whether to boycott Mr. Trump’s debate, if it indeed goes on as scheduled, is itself a subject of fevered debate on Fox, possibly because unlike taxes or health insurance, it’s one issue on which candidates openly differ.
Some candidates are reluctant to submit themselves to Mr. Trump’s ego (“I think I know the issues better than most if not almost all,” he said on Fox on Friday), but the Republican debates are a cheap, effective way to reach voters. Mr. Trump, however much of a self-promoter, gets ratings. Candidates have had access to so much free media that they are actually spending less money. Through September, the top nine Republican candidates spent $53 million, less than half as much as was spent at the same time four years ago.
Some Iowa voters may feel that their caucus has been shanghaied by Fox News, but the network’s national viewers are a little like Roman Catholics watching a televised Mass for shut-ins — it’s the next best thing to being there in person.
“You don’t win Iowa in Iowa, you win it on this couch,” is how the Republican commentator Dick Morris put it on “Fox & Friends” on Wednesday. Mr. Morris said that the Republican debates and Fox News had forged a national primary that “imposes itself on Iowa.”
It’s certainly obvious in Iowa that candidates are investing a lot more time in television interviews than they are on the campaign trail. It’s a safe bet: a recent New York Times/CBS News poll of likely Iowa Republican caucus participants showed that 37 percent said they get most of their information from Fox News, that’s compared with 27 percent who cited broadcast news and a mere 2 percent who said they relied on MSNBC.
Accordingly, caucus and primary voters have a voice on Fox News. All the networks, broadcast and cable, are closely covering the campaign, but Fox News practically owns and operates it: its viewers are seeing the world through the eyes of a Tea Party activist in Davenport, or a small business leader in Ames — my own private Iowa.
Fox News is known for ambush interviews, but it doesn’t have to lie in wait for Republican candidates. Many news organizations took a telling clip from a recent interview that Mitt Romney gave to the Fox News anchor Bret Baier in Florida that showed the usually imperturbable former Massachusetts governor looking rattled and jumpy when asked about health care. The full interview was long, thorough and even more tense — Mr. Baier also pressed Mr. Romney on his changing views on amnesty for illegal immigrants with the polite insistence that candidates used to face from single-issue voters in Iowa kaffeeklatsches.
Mr. Romney wasn’t happy with the interview, but Fox News viewers don’t seem thrilled with him either. Nearly half of them said they would vote for Newt Gingrich if the state’s Republican presidential caucus were held today; only 12 percent said they favored Mr. Romney.
That could be because Mr. Gingrich is a much more familiar face on Fox News, having logged more than 50 appearances since the campaign began. Mr. Romney is playing catch-up, seizing every opportunity to appear on the channel. He took a break from a forum in Washington sponsored by the Jewish Republican Coalition to tell a Fox reporter that Newt Gingrich is for amnesty for illegal immigrants and against child labor laws, among other things. “The list will go on and on as we get a clear indication of exactly where the speaker stands,” Mr. Romney said, not cheerfully.
He also posed in front of flag-waving supporters this week while talking to Fox about his decision to snub a proposed Donald Trump-moderated debate at the end of the month. Mr. Gingrich and Rick Santorum agreed to attend, Michele Bachmann is undecided, and Ron Paul, Rick Perry and Jon Huntsman declined. (Mr. Huntsman told Sean Hannity of Fox News that Mr. Trump “dumbs down” the process.) The question over whether to boycott Mr. Trump’s debate, if it indeed goes on as scheduled, is itself a subject of fevered debate on Fox, possibly because unlike taxes or health insurance, it’s one issue on which candidates openly differ.
Some candidates are reluctant to submit themselves to Mr. Trump’s ego (“I think I know the issues better than most if not almost all,” he said on Fox on Friday), but the Republican debates are a cheap, effective way to reach voters. Mr. Trump, however much of a self-promoter, gets ratings. Candidates have had access to so much free media that they are actually spending less money. Through September, the top nine Republican candidates spent $53 million, less than half as much as was spent at the same time four years ago.
Some Iowa voters may feel that their caucus has been shanghaied by Fox News, but the network’s national viewers are a little like Roman Catholics watching a televised Mass for shut-ins — it’s the next best thing to being there in person.
posted by Sid Cottingham | 9:27 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home